The law, which the initiative proposes to overturn, was first approved in 1963. It required that pharmacists have a majority ownership of most North Dakota pharmacies.[2]

Ballot measure supporters first filed the initiative in 2010 to repeal North Dakota's pharmacy ownership law with the secretary of state's office on October 8, 2009. After reviewing the filed signatures, it was determined that the initiative had exceeded the signature requirement by 91 signatures, however, supporters failed to submit a list of sponsoring committee members with the petition sheets. The committee list, according to officials, would withhold the measure from the ballot.

In order to qualify for the 2012 statewide ballot supporters of the initiative are required to collect a minimum of 13,452 valid signatures.[3]